


Afterwards

by ymeer



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Red Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-06
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-14 20:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1278238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ymeer/pseuds/ymeer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short little fic because parp is down. Red Erisol, pale-ish Ericro (??dont ask why i dont know). After the events on the meteor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Rock In Particular

**Author's Note:**

> first time writing this pov, not sure if I like it or not///

Getting used to being dead was easy once you realized that there was nothing you could do to become un-dead. All hope was lost, it had been lost for a while now, you just figured that was finalized by the fact that you’d ended up bleeding out in two pieces on the ground. That was what you’d decided in your final few seconds of being alive, there was nothing more you could do. Giving up was the only option, after all, it would all be over. You would die and that would be it and you wouldn’t have to deal with what you’d done. Dead trolls don’t have to say sorry, you figured. 

That’s why it was such a surprise waking up in one piece again. You were somewhere you’d seen before, a cave from one of your flarping adventures. It had empty chests of treasure and a few dank pools of water hardly deep enough to get the soles of your shoes damp. Standing up was another surprise, your legs seemed to work fine. Curious, you lifted up your shirt and examined your waist, a seamlike scar ran around your midsection, jagged violet edges almost matching the violet lines on your sign. Disgusted with the imperfection, which cut through your gills and served as a reminder of your apparently un-dead-edness, you tugged your shirt down and adjusted your scarf to further cover it up. 

Meeting everyone again was frustrating, you’d come across someone you thought you knew and then it turned out they were from some doomed timeline where something had gone wrong and you’d died in another gruesome fashion that they always made a point of telling you about. Things just got worse from there. Perhaps the only thing worse than meeting some version of Karkat who had seemingly undergone an emotional revelation was meeting your dancestor. He was irritating, grating, and most likely the worst troll you had ever met. He was a complete fucking disgrace, this wasn’t Dualscar, this was some half-assed wriggler who spent his time trying to get people to pay attention to him. He reminded you of him and you despised him for that. It didn’t help that he was the only one who listened. Admittedly, he probably wasn’t really listening, coming up with new lyrics for one of his songs or concocting some godawful pick up line in his head. You didn’t care, he never told anyone the stuff you told him, he just sat there and you could tell him all the things you’d done and his lack of attention meant that it felt like he was alright with some of them.

One night you’d finished the book you’d been reading (the literature gets boring when all of it comes from your memory) you had gone over to where he usually hangs out to see if he would go for listening to one of your theatrical rants. His hive, or “house” as he called it, was a complete mess. It was also empty, quiet for once, and his jacket was missing. He had found it a while ago and hadn’t shut about “actually owvning a real leather jacket” since. You sighed, leaving and closing the door behind you. He was probably out bothering someone. If there was one person you could teach the lesson of When All Hope Is Lost to, it would be him, since he obviously didn’t know how to recognize it himself. At first you had just figured that Cronus was not an expert on the definition of the phrase “go away”, recently you had realized that he knew what it meant, just decided against following the order in favor of actually having some company. It was actually a pretty good tactic, he and the other Vantas, the one you had learned to avoid, seemed to actually be entering in some sort of self-absorbed discussion forum in which the sweatered troll discussed various pointless and obsolete topics and Cronus remained completely self-absorbed. 

Once outside the hive, you walked down to the beach. You hated swimming, but the beach wasn’t bad. It was hard to believe that all this was just a memory sometimes, the water rolling up on the sand and reflecting the light of one of the moons that happened to be just overhead. Leaning back on the rock placed conveniently behind you, you looked up at the moon, wondering briefly if it was actually there or if it was just a projection. After all, you had all the time you wanted, why not just go to the moon one of these nights. 

Your musing was interrupted by a rustling of leaves behind you, startling you out of any deep and adventurous thoughts into the present. Peering around the rock, your hand went instinctively to where you used to keep the crosshairs. It wasn’t there anymore, of course, you hadn’t had anyone to duel with or anything to fight for a while now. It was back at your hive, where you’d stored it safely within the confines of its case. The troll you saw was nearing your rock, they kept getting closer and closer as you leaned back, not wanting to get run into. 

“Oof--” the troll said, finally colliding with the rock and placing their hands onto its surface, recognizing it as a rock before sitting down on it. You scuttled back, standing up. 

“Blindness doesn’t fuckin’ excuse you from takin’ other people’s seats, you know.” You folded your arms, leaning back. He couldn’t see you, but feeling like you looked irritated was just as important as actually looking irritated. 

He looked around to the source of your voice, a characteristic grin showing up once he recognized your accent. “Are you really telling me that the one rock I run into belongs to you? Sure, Prince of This Rock In Particular. What’d you do, paint it violet?”

“Why the fuck would I paint a rock. Really, be reasonable. It’s mine, I was sittin’ there an you collided with it before takin’ a seat. It’s not my fault you couldn’t see me.” You glared at him. How dare he be so insolent after all this time, if you were still fighting at this time you’d have simply carried him into the water and drowned him. 

“Well now I’m sitting here. Deal with it or gtfo.” He shrugged, making himself comfortable. 

“I am not going to ‘get the fuck out’, this isn’t even your memory, you never went anywhere near the sea.” This was getting out of hand, you just wanted to sit down and relax. He just had to appear out of absolutely fucking nowhere and stumble into your rock. 

“ED, I’m just sitting here, k? If you want to escort me to somewhere better to sit, I’d love a lounge chair with a recliner.” 

You wished he could see just so he could experience the frustration and anger your next glare contained. It probably was enough to blind him again. “Dammit Sol, what’s your fuckin’ obsession with takin’ anything that I try an associate with. I can’t even have a damn rock without havin’ you come over an sit down on it like you even have the right.”

He shrugged, turning his head down to his feet like he was looking at his awful mismatched shoes. “It’s just a rock ED, not some grand metaphor for your life. This shit’s not difficult to understand. I. Am. Sitting. Here. Now.” 

You huffed, adjusting your hair. The wind blowing off the sea had dislodged some of your violet forelock, and some was now hanging down framing the sides of your face. You hated having your hair down, it was miserable and a complete pain to deal with, not like this asshole could even see you. “Fuck off, Sol.” With that, you turned around, walking away. You could find somewhere else to sit and think about going to the moon.


	2. Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just more of the same, I suppose.

You had gotten halfway down the beach and were about to sit down again before you heard him shouting.

“HEY ED!” 

_What did he fucking want now?_ You grimaced, walking back towards him. “Was there somethin’ you required, Sol?”

“Yeah, your shitty dream memory thing is switching to daytime, and I have no idea where to go to find shelter.” 

Of course, he was so helpless he couldn’t even find shelter on his own. Wait, no, he wasn’t _that_ kind of helpless. _Damn it, Eri._ You thought to yourself, walking over to him and hoisting him up to a standing position. “Come on, there’s a cave nearby, I’ll take you there until you can find somethin’ useful to do with yourself without gettin fried.” You dragged him along the beach, the cave wasn’t that far, but it wasn’t close either. At the rate he was going, you wouldn’t even make it. “Mind hurryin’ up a bit?”

He turned to you, you could have sworn he was rolling his eyes. “I can’t see where I’m going, I don’t exactly trust you to lead me safely, asshole.” 

“I’d rather not get fried either, hurry the hell up or ill just carry you.” You walked faster, a tight grip on his wrist. 

“Awwh, don’t carry me, I’ll swoon.” He grinned, walking faster. The message that you wanted to get to the cave as quickly as possible seemed to have gotten through to him. 

You entered the cave as soon as the sun started to reflect off the rippling water outside. It was as you remembered, small, damp, and completely inhospitable. You hadn’t counted on his slowness, and now it was too late to leave, you didn’t know if your eyes the way they were now could burn, but you didn’t feel like finding out. Letting go of him, you walked around the cave and sat down on a dry patch of ground. “I’m stayin’ here, you find somewhere to sleep, since you got us both stuck in this situation, why’d you even leave your fuckin’ hive if you knew you were gonna get stuck outside.”

He turned around, looking lost. Your voice had echoed off the walls of the cave, it was pretty likely he had no idea where you were. “ED, it’s damp in here.”

“No fuckin’ shit, it’s a cave. Do you need to find somewhere to lay down an shut up or do I have to help you do that too?” You asked, irritated. You wanted him to shut up, and for him to stop spinning around in the middle of the cave like a lost woofbeast. 

Apparently, he decided he found where your voice was coming from, and walked straight into one of the walls of the cave, stubbing his toe. “Ow shitfuck ow damn it ED where the hell are you?” He was wincing, standing on his one foot and using his psionics to keep him somewhat upright. 

Begrudgingly, you stood up, walking over to him and taking his hand. You had discovered the only dry spot in the small cavern was where you had been sitting, and led him to it. He seemed to have gotten over stubbing his toe by the time you had reached the area, thankfully. You would have thought his tolerance for pain had increased, with all he’d been through. Sitting down, you held on to his arm. “Sit down, it’s dry enough here. I don’t want to hear any whinin’. It’s a cave, the floor is rock, get used to it.” You’d had enough sleeping outside of your recuperacoon to get used to dealing with it during flarping. You were pretty sure he barely left his hive back on Alternia, and something told you he would probably have a hard time falling asleep. 

He sat down, feeling the sandy floor beneath you before laying down. You followed suit, trying to lay as far away from him as possible without getting yourself wet from the floor. He seemed to fall asleep quicker than you would think, and you did so soon after. Sleeping next to someone was always uncomfortable, but at least he wasn’t Vriska. You’d had to wake up every ten minutes or so just to make sure she wasn’t trying to kill you, or drawing stuff on your face. It was miserable, you barely ever got any sleep with her. 

It was light out still when you woke up, a rock was poking into your gills and it had gotten increasingly uncomfortable throughout your dream. You’d finally woken up, thankfully, upon realizing that you weren’t getting stabbed through the side and in fact were just laying on a rock. Picking it out from under you, you tossed it deeper into the cave, listening to the sound of its impact before laying back down and relaxing. You were just about to go to sleep when he grabbed you, hand on the back of your scarf and yanking your neck back. “Sol what the hell?!” You muttered, turning around to try and get out of his grip. He appeared to be asleep still, and you reached up to tug your scarf out of his hand. 

It was then that you realized that he was shaking, his hands still reaching out to try and grab on to anything in front of him. It was a characteristic sign of having a daymare, as was the way his face was contorted in pain. You sighed, sliding over to him a little closer. 

“D-didn’t mean to I swear I didn’t!” He cried out, curling up into himself a little more. 

You wanted to push him awake, but then he would know that you had been awake and that you had been watching him and you didn’t want that, so you just moved closer until you were pressed up against him. It seemed to relax him, some base instinct that said it was better to be near to someone else in a vulnerable moment, probably. He stopped talking to himself, and the shaking died down. You sighed, resting next to him. He was warm, of course he was, he was a yellowblood. What the hell were you doing, he was a _yellowblood_! Resorting to scolding yourself mentally for even getting this close to him (he would probably flip shit once he woke up, maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all) you closed your eyes, trying to relax. Sometime before you were about to fall asleep again, you felt one of his arms wrap around you. You didn’t know if he was awake or not, but risking letting him know you were awake was enough to dissuade you from checking, and you simply let the feeling that _someone_ wanted to hold you, even if they were asleep, wash over you as you fell asleep.

The first thing you did when you woke up was wonder why the side of your face was so _warm_. The second thing you did was wonder why the hell whatever you were laying on was moving. 

“Way to almost impale me with your horn, holy shit ED, get off!” 

You shut your eyes tighter, your glasses must’ve fallen off during the day, and everything was a little blurry anyways. “Wh-what the hell?” You mumbled, still trying to remember what had happened. “...fell asleep. It’s warm..” Sighing, you curled up closer to the source of the warmth. It still hadn’t gotten through to you what that source was, and you lay there for a minute or so more before standing up promptly, your vision going fuzzy and slightly black for a second or two as your elevation changed. Seeing your glasses on the ground, you reached down and grabbed them quickly before stepping away from him. He looked a little lost again, hands up in front of him. 

“Wait, where’d you go? ED?” He looked in your general direction, you didn’t make a sound. “Come on, help me up.” Reaching out a hand, he pouted, how was it even possible for him to look that sweet. 

_NO fuckin no damn it Eri don’t you dare think that you complete assbackwards moron. Sol is *not* sweet._ You tried to convince yourself as you reached out a ring-laden hand and tried hoisting him up. Instead, you found yourself getting yanked to the ground by a combination of his own strength and some weak psionic energy. 

“What the actual fuck Sol, what was the purpose a that?” You sat up, looking irritated as you yanked your hand away from his. 

“You were cuddling me. Why?” He tilted his head inquisitively, looking smug. 

“W-what?! No I sure as hell was not!” You retaliated. That was a shitty argument, you thought to yourself. You were obviously just cuddling him, that was what you were doing, no way to deny it.

“Heh, sure you weren’t” He grinned, satisfied. “Help me up, for real this time, I want to go home.” He held his hand out, and you stood up and hoisted him into a standing position. 

It didn’t take long for you to get him to his hivestem, and he seemed to be alright with navigating his way up himself. You didn’t realize that you’d been waiting to make sure he’d gotten to his hive safely for a while, until you heard the clicking of some lusus nearby, and absconded back to Cronus’s hive. He should have returned by now, anyways, and you needed to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is so self indulgent i dont even care


End file.
